Province to reduce planned spending on health care by $200M

The MRI unit in Diagnostic Imaging at the newly opened Calgary South Health Campus.

Photograph by: Ted Rhodes
, Calgary Herald

The province's health superboard will freeze front-line hiring, cut travel expenses and look to trim top executives as it grapples with a budget next that's nearly $200 million less than promised.

But Alberta Health Services chair Stephen Lockwood said he's confident wait times for surgery and tests at hospitals can still be shortened despite the shortfall on its $10.9 billion in government funding.

"I have every confidence they will find productivity improvements which will mean more money available to improve the system," Lockwood said in an interview.

"We're not at the stage today that I can say to Albertans we run an efficient ship."

Lockwood said AHS has already found $170 million in savings during the current fiscal year and senior leaders will present more at find even more going forward.

By eliminating some of the authority's 81 vice-president positions and cutting 10 per cent in associated administration costs, he said cuts to care staff should not be necessary.

"We certainly don't want to go down the road of layoffs," Lockwood said.

Wildrose critic Heather Forsyth was doubtful.

"We're going to wait and see," Forsyth said.

"(Those savings) better not affect front-line workers."

AHS will still receive three per cent or $307 million more than it did last year, but Liberal health critic Dr. David Swann is worried the government is cutting some community programs, including a combined $7.7 million for mental health and home care.

"It's penny-wise and pound foolish," said Swann, "because without adequate support those people will end up clogging our ERs and hospitals." Other key health spending changes include:

* Anticipated savings of $90 million on prescription drug costs through increased substitution of cheaper generics for brand-name products.

* Savings of $45 million this coming year and $180 million in future years through a revised pharmacare program to be introduced in early 2014. The plan will extend coverage to the 20 per cent of Albertans who currently pay for their own prescriptions while requiring those with higher incomes to cover an increased share of the cost.

* A $45-million reduction to planned funding to support the opening of new beds and clinics at Calgary's South Health Campus and Edmonton's Kaye Clinic.

* Additional spending of $162 million on primary care networks and new family care clinics promised by Premier Alison Redford during the last election campaign.

* A $155-million reduction in planned capital spending on hospitals and care facilities next year to $500 million as the province pushes back work on new hospitals in Edson, Grande Prairie, and High Prairie and expansions to facilities in Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. A $50-million in-patient addition to a new hospital in Sherwood Park has been cancelled.

* Construction on a new outpatient facility for cancer treatment at Foothills Medical Centre is tentatively planned to begin in 2014, although the province has only set aside $45 million in future years for the estimated $1-billion-plus cost of the a new cancer centre for the city.

* An addition $15.7 million for care of inmates at correctional facilities.

* About $5 million for a new program to provide insulin pump coverage to some Albertans with Type-1 diabetes.

Despite the government's broken promise of predictable funding hikes over five years, Alberta will still spend 20 per cent more than the national average on health. The $4,606 per capita figure for next year leads all other provinces except Newfoundland and Labrador.

"The one thing we will not sacrifice is quality of care and patient safety," Health Minister Fred Horne said.

"It all amounts to doing more with the same instead of more of the same."

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